Fly-tipping rose 16 per cent in Reading last year - but hardly anyone gets caught.

The borough council dealt with a staggering 1,701 incidents of people illegally dumping rubbish last year - or an average of seven incidents every day.

But despite the huge volume of cases of dumped litter in Reading, not a single person was prosecuted in the town last year.

The figures come from statistics compiled from getreading 's data unit, which also reveal fly-tipping incidents rose as a whole by six per cent across the country.

Reading Borough Council spent a total of £48,840 investigating fly-tipping last year, and another £1,452 sending out 44 warning letters at £33 a letter.

The stats also reveal people fly-tip litter on roads in Reading more than five times a day on average.

The council reported 1,947 incidents of people fly-tipping rubbish along the town's streets last year - up 11 per cent on the 1,757 cases recorded the year before.

Roads were the most popular place to get rid of litter illegally in Reading, followed by council land.

Bracknell had a particular problem with people dumping rubbish on private land - this happened 197 times last year.

In total, the six Berkshire authorities had to deal with 5,867 incidents of fly-tipping last year.

A spokesman for Reading Borough Council said: "Fly-tipping is investigated by the Neighbourhood Officers (NOs) who carry out a wide range of environmental and highways functions on a patch area basis.

"For example, they have issued 31 fixed penalty notices for littering this year.

"The NOs investigate every fly-tipping incident in their area, which can range from one dumped bag of rubbish or a mattress to large piles of builders spoil or furniture, and this involves searching through the waste to find evidence of who it might belong to.

"In the majority of cases no evidence is found and the NO will then carry out door knocking and letter drops to gather evidence if possible.

"If evidence is found, NO’s will contact the people involved and work with them to get the waste removed and if that does not prove successful we consider prosecution.

"We have to assess on a case by case basis whether prosecution is possible within the council’s limited resources and prefer to educate wherever possible.

"NO’s work with local housing providers, landlords and the University of Reading to educate and inform residents on disposing of waste and waste reduction, through events such as roadshows and community clean-up events and letter drops.

"Fly tipping has not dramatically increased but the methods of reporting are now much better with NOs out and about all day recording every incident they see and the wider use of the council’s Love Clean Reading app has also added to the number of fly tipping reports, which we welcome."

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